I love to do things with my hands. I like fixing things, and WD-40 is one of my favorite products. Therefore, I was excited the other day when I realized one of our showers was not draining properly. I did my research, accumulated the right supplies, applied a little elbow grease, and voila! our shower works! All at the expense of a couple of dollars.
My weapons were:
baking soda
vinegar
boiling water
clothes hanger
Baking soda and vinegar fizz their way through blockages, and baking soda and boiling water turns into a force to behold against grime. :) The clothes hanger was bent to pull out grossie things which I won't describe, but frankly made me want to puke.
I was very proud of myself. I made Jon come and observe the wonder of water draining as it should. And then I proceeded to clean out the other shower drain and a sink. I've decided that the baking soda and vinegar combination might just make it to my list of favorite products.
11 years ago
Yay for being handy! I changed a car tire once with Missy. Luckily it was in my dorm parking lot and not on the side of the road. We read the instructions that are printed on the inside of my trunk. :) Congrats on the clean drain!
ReplyDeleteWe had some doors that were squeaking really bad and were in desperate need of WD40. Finally, I saw some in a little hardware store my friend runs and I tried to buy it. "What? You don't want to buy that! It's expensive! Just use olive oil." She said. And she refused to sell us any WD40. So we used olive oil. And it worked.
ReplyDeleteA few weeks later our shower was dripping. Our neighbor fixed it with a wrench and.... that's right.... olive oil. Wierd again.
Once I had a housekeeper who refused to use all the amazing array of cleaning products I had under the sink. All she wanted was vinegar, baking soda, and ammonia. My whole house was sparkling clean for a few cents' worth of products and good ol' elbow grease.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Ms. Handywoman of the Year!
What does baking soda and vinegar do?
ReplyDeleteOur method usually just involves the clothes hanger... and the almost puking part.
Ugh, I really hate cleaning drains. It is so sad that common things can turn into such vile sub-lifeforms! Kuddos! to you Lyd. Maybe you should write a manual of all of your nifty home ideas and remedies!
ReplyDeleteUm...that was it. That was the extent of my home remedies...that and WD40, of course. Jon took apart our disposal one time. That was kind of cool.
ReplyDelete@ Karen: The baking soda and vinegar just bubble a lot. I think that helps break stuff up. And then the boiling water to baking soda actually turns the bkg soda much more alkaline, which makes it a more potent chemical. I think it actually eats the goo or something.
I wonder if fancy cleaners (like Goo Gone, for example) are nothing more than concoctions of household items, and we just pay out the wazoo for them because of their fancy name and that bulleted list of what they can do.
ReplyDeleteI bet GooGone is olive oil. :)
ReplyDeleteI think Karen's right...it's all marketing!
ReplyDeleteYou go, girl!
ReplyDeleteYou should bear in mind that all of that stuff that accumulates in the drain came off of you and your husband. And that is Papa Steve's Unpleasant Thought of the Day.
ReplyDelete